PC Miniature 61: The Jacob Miracle

[Ocicat]

PodCastle Miniature 61: The Jacob Miracle

By Katherine Sparrow

Read by Ann Leckie

Originally Published in Brain Harvest (read the story here!)

Everybody underestimated Jacob Apple. He’d launched spells from the chaos camp for the last three years, and though he was by far the strongest witch in the world, so what?

He’d made Germany turn pink, and mice talked now. Every year on April tenth people in Chicago danced all day long. His spells had strength, but no substance. Everyone said Jacob didn’t know his why. Without a why, a witch is just a prankster.

Rated PG: Contains miracles. Or witchcraftery.

[stePH]

.

[ElectricPaladin]

I didn't like this one, much. Firstly, the events were so truly horrific that - despite the upbeat beginning - I found the story overall much more suited to Pseudo- than -Castle. Jarringly so. I'm not prone to that particular critique, but there you have it. Also, I felt that the story depended entirely on the plot, rather than building up any of the characters are particularly interesting or sympathetic. So, thus, an entire world full of people I never got around to caring about died, enslaved to the will of a villain I never got around to hating. I understand that flash pieces are limited by the form, but some manage to transcend brevity. This one, I am afraid, did not seem to.

[eytanz]

I liked it - I appreciated the way the lighthearted tone was used in conjunction with the rather horrific events. I disagree with Electricpaladin's criticism about the characters because it's a fable - the characters are archtypes, not people; in this case, they represent the danger of a small group of individuals having unlimited (or near unlimited) power - even with the best of intentions, they are still human and thus subject to human emotions such as envy and panic, and that can lead to disaster.

[Unblinking]

I first read this over on Brain Harvest.  At the beginning of the story it seems a little too cutesy, but the dark turn was very satisfying to me.  The light tone was a good companion for the dark content, and the revelation that this was supposed to be a list of how to survive that ended up being a Jacob story was great.

I saw the ending as horror as well, but I see no reason why a horror fantasy shouldn't be on Podcastle.  The genres aren't mutually exclusive.  I'd rather the 'casts have overlapping jurisdictions than to leave gaps between them where good stories might fall through.

[LaShawn]

Everything is a Jacob story now!

::shivers::